BTW, this is Harold of Harold's Fonts who has asked me to see if you can help. He has been very good about recognizing the sources of his fonts, and does a good job of finding old fonts to digitize. I'd sure like to help him if we could.

Thanks.

Huh. I am officially stumped.

Well, thanks for looking Mark. That's good enough for me. If anyone else thinks this type looks familiar, please chime in.

This is a case where 'no news is good news', because Harold may digitize this face if it hasn't been done before.

I'll wait another day before relaying Mark's answer, if no one can come up with an ID.

Nothing here Mike.
Another one kind of similar is Arnholm Sans Medium (Phil's Homage).

Hope you don't find it.

Thanks Ignacio. That's actually closer than most Sans faces I found, but it's still not the same typeface. I also noticed, while looking at Arnholm Sans in Phil's book that 'Lydian' is rather close, in such letters as U, G and M, but the R is wrong and the strokes are simpler (to state the most obvious features).

Anyone else? Yves? Going twice...

Hi Mike, frankly I haven't got the faintest clue. I suspect it is
Zapf's work or someone ripping off his style quite skillfully.
Isn't it possible early display versions of Optima included
alternate characters?

Isn't it possible early display versions of Optima included
alternate characters?

If there were, I've never seen or heard of them. I hesitate to say this was a custom job, but it's possible. At one time, all movie titles were hand-lettered. It doesn't seem too far fetched as a theory.

I have already written back to Harold saying we came up with nothing. I asked him to let me know if he decides to go ahead and digitize it.

Thanks for giving it a look.